ENGLISH AND SPANISH
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As a Spaniard, may I congratulate you on publishing in The Spectator of July 20th that masterpiece of English humour by Miss Rose Macaulay, whom I may perhaps venture to describe as your twentieth-century Sterne ? The lady displays, moreover, an even more remarkable sense of history than her illustrious ancestor. For us• benighted foreigners, men like Captain Kane and writers like Miss Macaulay arc the salt of the British Empire—with the permission ' of Lord Beaverbrook. That Miss Macaulay should, before comment- ing upon our old Spanish customs, go to the country and mix with the natives, as I have dared to cross the Channel to know first-hand the "mad" Englishman, would, I suppose, be fatal. It would hopelessly cramp her style, checking the delightful flow of wit and erudition by the gag of facts. There is also the danger that she might suffer the fate of Captain Kane—and on that point I am not prepared to offer an opinion without seeing her in the flesh. After all, the humorous writer should go through every kind of experience.—I am, Sir,
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